Recently I had to write a DAX formula containing a LASTDATE within the logical condition of a FILTER: I found that its behavior was not the one I expected and I further investigated. At the end, I wrote my findings in this article on SQLBI, which can be applied to any Time Intelligence function with a <dates> argument.
The key ...

Microsoft recently announced a new roadmap for its BI architecture. The next version of SQL Server, codenamed “Denali”, is going to introduce a new semantic model named BISM (Business Intelligence Semantic Model). Analysis Services will host it and it will be queryable through MDX and DAX. DAX has been introduced in PowerPivot as an expression ...

Alberto wrote a really fine post that should help you to better understand how many-to-many relationships can work in PowerPivot, using a lot of images that explain some concepts better than a thousand words. The example shown by Alberto is really interesting also for another reason: it can open up your mind about why Vertipaq (the engine of ...

Yesterday I had a nice time delivering the SQLBI Methodology session at 24 Hours of PASS. A few hours later, I had the news about the official RTM of the PowerPivot book I wrote with Alberto. The complete title is Microsoft® PowerPivot for Excel® 2010: Give Your Data Meaning and we hope it will be a good book for both advanced Excel users (who are ...